ryot

plural ryots · alternative raiyot · alternative riat

1. IndiaA farmer or tiller of the soil.

   They are simply the rank and file — the food for fever — sharing with the ryot and the plough-bullock the honor of being the plinth on which the State rests.

   1889, Rudyard Kipling, “The Education of Otis Yeere”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 28

   2 more examples

   We have seen, however, how the condition arose, namely, that the Government at first half-intended to make a permanent settlement direct with the ryots, but subsequently altered its intention and devolved this duty upon the zemindars.

   1874, J. Westland, A Report on the District of Jessore: Its Antiquities, Its History, and Its Commerce

   Scattered about the grazing and arable country are now small towers of refuge, loop-holed for defense, to which ryots working in the fields, or shepherds tending their flocks, fled for safety in case of a sudden appearance of Turcoman marauders.

   1887, Thomas Stevens, chapter III, in Around the World on a Bicycle, Vol. II: From Teheran to Yokohama, London: Sampson Low […]